


don't disappoint

by WhyDontWeBegin



Series: As I Fall [10]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cuddling & Snuggling, Early Mornings, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Flashbacks, Fluff, Garlean Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Garleans (Final Fantasy XIV), Implied Sexual Content, Snow, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, featuring no angst for once, fun fact: Garleans cannot see their strings, its truly a miracle, nero cooks, nero has an accent he is a FARMBOY, no angst? what?, no beta we just die, so they don't know who their soulmate(s) are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21876349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyDontWeBegin/pseuds/WhyDontWeBegin
Summary: Winter and Nero spend a slow day together. Nero takes an unexpected stroll down memory lane.
Relationships: Nero tol Scaeva/Warrior of Light
Series: As I Fall [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1262435
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	don't disappoint

**Author's Note:**

> what? something soft and fluffy in As I Fall? what blasphemy!  
> takes place post-stormblood, post-omega, but pre-Shadowbringers
> 
> next I need to finish the direct sequel of stained with the blood of somebody you love ack

Winter yawned as she stepped out of the bedroom, immediately catching sight of Nero in the kitchen. She quietly crossed the room, sleepily appreciating the sight of his bare back and sleep-mussed hair. He hadn’t yet fixed it, and she relished the opportunity to see him like this. No pretenses, no dressing up. Just him, just Nero. Her smartass, arrogant, _brilliant_ engineer.

He didn’t notice her until she wrapped her arms around him from behind with a soft hum, resting her head against his back. His shirt was far, far too big for her, but she liked wearing them and it made him _incredibly_ happy to see. Nero gave a soft hum, placing one hand over hers. “G’mornin’ to ya, too,” he said softly, and she smiled. His voice was low, warm. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside to hear. Truthbetold, it was soothing to feel something other than the frigidness that she had grown up with.

“Mm, morning...”

Nero chuckled as he turned, wrapping his free around her shoulders. “Thief.”

“You love it, you bastard. Feed me.”

Nero rolled his eyes. “Gimme a minu’e, woul’ya? Yer insufferable...”

“Mmn, and that accent is _far_ too attractive on you,” she purred. He raised a brow, a smirk playing at his lips, but said nothing. Nero knew full well her opinion on his accent.

He hummed in thought and Winter looked up at him, tilting her head. “Nero?” He didn’t respond, momentarily shifting his focus from breakfast to pick her up abruptly, and Winter immediately cling to his shoulders on instinct. Nero would never drop her, but she was easily approximately two fulms off the ground, now and it was unexpected.

He smiled slyly at her, and Winter blinked, staring into his eyes. (She wanted to get that smug expression off his face, but at the same time...) Her hands moved to his cheeks, elbows resting on his shoulders. His arms were strong around her, and she was light enough that he could do this easily for a time. Nero’s eyes, an icy blue so similar to her own but also so much warmer, glittered with mischief.

She kissed him before he could say anything. Softly, sweetly, chapped lips on his softer ones. Once. Twice. Thrice, before Nero finally set her down on the counter, placed a kiss between her eyes, and returned to cooking.

Winter did love it so when he spoiled her like this.

—

Nero’s side was warm. Winter was still clad in only his stolen shirt and her smallclothes, curled against him with her head on his shoulder and his arm around her waist. He was reading- since he’d half moved in to her home in the Lavender Beds, quite a few books on magitek and a few other things had found their way into the small house. She hummed in thought, staring into the fire. And then looked up at him, the light furrow of his brow, expression otherwise neutral as he read. He was completely focused.

_Mm, that can be remedied,_ she idly mused, a plan already forming in her mind. How were they to know how long it would be before she was called away, how long it would be before she got to come home? Winter always _did_ have a policy of making the most of their time together.

She idly reached her arm around him, slipping a hand into the shirt he had donned earlier and pressing closer, brushing her lips along his jaw. This, at the least, earned her a questioning hum and a glance. (She already knew he’d humor her. With the life she lead, they’d always been keen on making the most of their shared time.)

Winter slipped into his lap, straddling his thighs, and pressed her forehead to his, their third eyes almost making contact. Nero’s expression remained impassive, but his eyes betrayed his interest, and so she continued, arms winding around his neck. “Pay attention to me, Nero.”

He hummed in consideration for a moment before setting the book aside, hands coming to settle on her hips. “Very well. You have my full... _undivided_... attention.”

“Prove it,” she breathed.

He did.

—

Nero found Winter outside. Snow gently drifted down, melting as soon as it hit the ground, and his breath became visible in front of his face. The chill seeped in through his clothing- which was considerably more appropriate for the weather than Winter’s. Foolish, as always.

But then again, no one ever said she was a wise woman- and the cold had never particularly bothered her. When he’d met her, the first time, it had been snowing, too. She’d been standing alone in the snow, clothes too thin to offer much protection. Perhaps it was the fact that she loved the cold so that led her to choose the name ‘Winter.’

“You’ll catch cold, dressing like that in this weather,” he called. She turned to look at him over her shoulder, and for a moment he didn’t see the strong woman she had become but the short-haired, angry girl he had first met. It was déjà-vu, the small smirk that pulled at the corner of her mouth. Nero knew she’d noticed it, too.

“Will I, now? What’s it to you?”

_“Well, fine then. Freeze to death for all I care,” Nero snorted, rolling his eyes. Really, these city people were insufferable. She turned to him fully, and he could see, now, that her features were delicate. But her eyes, an icy blue, the shade richer than his own, were hard. Cold and guarded. A third eye was barely visible on her forehead for the silvery-white hair that obscured it. Her accent was strange, a stark contrast to any others he’d met thus far, and something seemed a tad off, but she otherwise spoke like anyone else born and raised in Garlemald._

_It occurred to him that she looked not unlike a Hyur, with her short frame and petite build. She was not like Garlond- he was short, yes, but made up for it with his bulkier frame- and intellect, not that Nero would ever admit he even thought such a thing. She barked out a laugh, startling Nero from his musings._

_“What are you laughing at?” Nero growled, scowling. She waved one small hand dismissively._

_“Not_ you _, I’m afraid. Unless you’d rather I did? I take requests.”_

_“Excuse me?!”_

_She gave him a wicked grin as she came closer, leaning up to look at him better. “You smell like oil, machinery, and books. There are bags under your eyes, and grease on your clothes and hands. An engineer, or you’re in training to be one. I’m betting training, though you look smart enough to be one of those bloody prodigies I keep hearing about. You’re a little unkempt, too, and I’m willing to bet you have an accent you’re hiding, so you’re probably not from Garlemald. Somewhere else in the empire, then, and probably not the most financially fortunate. Still better off than I was, but... hm...”_

_She leaned back, crossed one arm over her chest and propped the other on it, holding her hand in front of her mouth as she stared at him. Her brow was furrowed just a bit, eyes narrowed, the ghost of a frown on her lips. If that wasn’t so_ creepy _, Nero would’ve been in awe- but it was a little freaky to be analyzed like that. At least... well, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that to be an analysis or if he would rather her have just somehow gotten her hands on his information, and was simply playing around with him. “Wha- how could you-“_

_“The way you carry yourself. Most of the Garleans I’ve met since I enlisted are self-entitled arses who wouldn’t know the difference between conjury and thurmaturgy even_ if _you spelled out the elements the different types use. It’s a miracle I haven’t hit any of them- especially the newer recruits. Or worse yet, my own fuckin’ squadron. Insufferable.”_

_“... Who in the seven hells_ are _you?”_

_She hummed, tilting her head as she stared up at him, before seemingly having an epiphany and placing her hands on her hips. “Why don’t we make a game out of it? You try to figure out who I am, and I try to figure out who you are. Looser has to help the winner with whatever they want for the next fortnight.”_

_Nero realized that taking the deal was likely a terrible idea, but he did so_ love _a good challenge. “Very well then. A sennight?”_

_“Mm. Don’t disappoint. I’ll see you around, engineer.”_

_Nero wasn’t sure if that glint in her eye was scary or attractive. Before long, he settled on both._

—

“Well, _perhaps_ I rather prefer having you around. You do, after all, have such small hands,” Nero teased, smiling. She barked out a laugh. “They’re quite useful.”

“Oh, like them, do you?”

Nero hugged her from behind and she leaned into his warmth as he took one of her hands, leaning down and pulling it up at the same time to press gentle kisses to her fingertips. “If I did, would it be a problem?”

“Ah, I suppose not.”

They stood in silence for a minute or two, watching the snow fall. Her smaller, more petite hand in his own larger one. Nero hummed in thought and then picked her up again, and this time she was ready for it. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she turned, supporting herself enough that he didn’t have to hold her weight while she did. “Oh, what’s this? An abduction?”

“If I wanted to abduct you, you wouldn’t know until it was done,” Nero hummed. She gave a soft huff of laughter. “What are you laughing at?”

“Not _you_ , I’m afraid. Unless you’d rather I did? I take requests.”

Ah, so she’d felt much the same nostalgia as he had. Nero chuckled, and she burst into a fit of laughter all her own shortly after. “What’s next, a challenge?”

“Would you accept if I said yes?”

“Most certainly.”

“Mm, don’t disappoint, engineer.”

Nero had no intention of doing so. None at all.


End file.
